UFC PICKS

Matt Serra is a good enough fighter to beat Georges St. Pierre about three times out of every 20 matches. I really, really hope Saturday's bout isn't one of those other two times. I am sick of Matt Serra. After listening to his big mouth for two TUF series, I want to see St. Pierre kick his head into the upper deck of the Bell Centre. Will this happen? In all likelihood, yes. St. Pierre is one of the five best pound-for-pound fighters in the world --- he should beat Serra without any problem. But still, he was supposed to do that the last time they fought, and Serra knocked him out. My pick? Well, obviously, GSP. St. Pierre winning opens the door for intriguing fights against Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves, not to mention potential superfights against B.J. Penn and Anderson Silva. I'll say he wins by submission in late in the first.

Michael Bisping over Charles "Will People Under Age 70 Get An Edgar Bergen Joke Here?" McCarthy. This is basically UFC"s equivalent of one of those jobber fights on WWF superstars. McCarthy might as well come to the cage patting himself on the back like Barry Horowitz. UFC desperately, desperately wants Bisping to be a big star they can market in the UK, but the jury is still out on whether or not he's actually any good. Conceivably, dropping to middleweight should be a boost for him, but who knows. Bisping by knockout in the first round.

Mac Danzig should get a TKO over Mark Bocek late in the second or early in the third round. I still can't believe Danzig was allowed on an Ultimate Fighter series. That's like if that 'get a Nationwide tour card' reality show on the Golf Channel featured 15 amateurs and, like, Mark Brooks.

Poor Rich Franklin. The guy probably the second-best middleweight in the world, and yet he's been utterly demolished two straight times by number one middleweight Anderson Silva. What is Rich's future? Beat two or three more top opponents and earn another title shot-slash-beating? Though at least Rich made it into the second round against Anderson last time around, so I'd think that he could make the third round a third time around. Yay? Anyway, apparently Travis Lutter made weight for this one (shock of shocks), so he's in the right shape for Franklin to TKO him in the third.

In his last fight, Kalib Starnes was cut open so deeply that the ringside doctor said he 'could see brain.' Yikes. That's like being cut by a knife but without it feeling all right. Write a song about THAT, Adams. Fortunately for Starnes, he's now fighting the largely worthless Nate Quarry. Starnes ends it with a knockout in the second.

The guy who put that big slice into Starnes was Alan Belcher, who was rewarded for the win by....ending up on the undercard. Nice. It's not a total dis, given that Belcher was originally supposed to fight a couple of events ago but had to pull out due to injury, and then was supposed to fight Patrick Cote on this card but Cote pulled out due to injury. So now Belcher ends up with UFC debuter Jason Day. Even though Day is a Canuck, I'll say he gets some UFC first-time jitters and gets submitted by 'the Talent' in the second. N.B. I actually own a t-shirt that just says 'talent' across the chest. It was made for me on request as a gift years ago. I thought it was really cool at the time, but then I realized that by actually wearing it, I'd look like something of a douche. C'est la vie.

Kuniyoshi Hironaka beats Jonathan Goulet in a fight that, uh, I don't care about.

Jason 'The Athlete' MacDonald has perhaps the worst nickname in MMA, but the guy is a good fighter. I think he's a clear notch below the likes of Franklin or Silva, but he's a good gatekeeper in the middleweight division. He deserves greater than an undercard fight against Joe Doerksen, who is barely a step up from Charles McCarthy. MacDonald wins by submission in the first.

Cain Velazquez will beat Brad Morris by decision in the battle of two guys who I've never heard of. Both are heavyweights, so it'll probably be three rounds of dull standing around or shoving against the cage.

Sam Stout! Good ol' London boy! He has a tough opponent in Rich Clementi, who has shown in his career that he can beat any third-tier guy and lose to any top or second tier guy. This fight will show us conceivably just how good Stout is. My head says Clementi, but my heart says Stout takes it by KO in the second.

Ed Herman faces Demian Maia in what might be the most interesting fight of the evening, and the one I hope gets shown on the PPV if there's enough time. Herman appears to be on a roll with wins in his last three fights, and Maia is a highly-regarded prospect with one UFC win under his belt and even some whispers that he might be the next big star in the middleweight division. I'll go with Maia by submission in the second just out of a belief that the MW division needs another up-and-comer.

Overall, this isn't the best PPV in UFC history. Frankly, it's pretty weak. Given that the last PPV was stacked, the next PPV in May is stacked and the last Fight Night was stacked, I guess one card was due to fall through the cracks. Dana White probably figured that they could sell out Montreal with a St. Pierre fight alone, so why bother using up a bunch of other big bouts on a sure-thing card. It's sort of like how I save my best jokes for a post that will be read by more people than just MMA junkies.